I disliked the idea of being hunted. I also had no doubt that Doxel’s appraisal of the Great Houses’ interest in me was anything but accurate. Grammy Duella had painted a very clear picture of how the Great Houses of the Empire tended to operate both through the stories she told and the fact that she lived in “some little cottage in the woods” as Doxle had put it.

He’d arranged for us to have a semi-private booth in one of the Golden’s smaller dining rooms. It was all velvet cushions and dark wood luxury but I’d already been wondering if he’d asked for it because he didn’t want to be seen with me or because he didn’t want me to be seen. Either or both might be true, but with the reminder that there were people who would prey on me as naturally as they drew breath I was feeling glad to be isolated. Glad and also worried that we were still too exposed.

Those emotions had an unhappy companion in the question of how much I should be concerned about Doxle himself. The obvious answers were ‘a lot’ and ‘flee while you still can’, but the counterargument that kept me in my seat was that he could have simply left me in the jail if he wanted me to suffer, or kept the manacles on and dragged me out if he wanted to steal my power, or drink my blood, or whatever horrible thing it was demons did to captive humans.

The kindness he’d shown me so far didn’t mean he wasn’t  going to take advantage of me somehow, but so far he’d been reasonably honest and, under my current circumstances, gambling that I could sniff out his secret agendas seemed to carry better odds than striking out on my own.

Of course, he still hadn’t made his offer yet.

“So you’ll protect me from the Great Houses?” I asked.

“Not precisely,” Doxle said. “Think of me more as a buckler in that context. I can deflect some problems, but associating with me is not a perfect Aegis from the attentions of the powerful and influential.” He continued after I stared at him for a moment and then raised an eyebrow. “More explanations are in order I see.”

I nodded once, not taking my eyes off him.

“You have a great deal of power, and a remarkable degree of control.” He swished his hand, banishing the light show he’d conjured. “The former makes you desirable to a number of the Great Houses, with only a bare handful of those possessing interests which are compatible with your long term health and viability. As for the control you’ve shown though? The only sort of control the Houses tend to recognize is their own. Any casters possessing significant power who are not under the yoke of someone are automatically viewed as a threat to everyone. The Empire tolerates many things, but wild cards are not typically one of them.”

Which told me what role Doxle would play in any arrangement we came to.

“You’ll be my yoke then.” It didn’t feel like I had to guess at that.

“A very special kind of yoke, yes,” Doxle said. “Imperial Advisors have many roles. The ‘guidance’ of talented casters is one of our primary ones though.”

“So instead of one of the Houses telling me what to do, you would, but that’s better for me because you’re not them?”

“I wish it were that simple,” Doxle said. “If I merely had to make my case against the greed and cruelty of the Great Houses, I could convince you in three words. What I am offering is more involved than that though.”

He paused waiting to see if I would ask any questions. I did not.

“Casters with access to large amount of magical energy are among the most likely to be overwhelmed and lose control of their spells. This can have obvious and immediate ramifications – the caster exploding being one people enjoy citing, though I’ve always found the ‘summoning a pillar of fire the size of a city block’ to be the more concerning possibility. It’s on the basis of those easily imagine concerns that the duties of an Imperial Advisor are often argued for but the reality is that much worse problems often afflict powerful and untrained casters. Recall what I said about how casting a spell involve transforming your mind? When a caster’s power exceeds their ability to manage it, their psyches can and often do develop deep fissures leading to such entertaining pastimes as berserk rages and possession by malevolent entities from the transcendent planes they are attuned to.”

“You can shield my mind from that?” I didn’t like the idea of someone being able to monitor my thoughts, but it turned out my worries were running in the wrong direction.

“Only indirectly,” Doxle said. “Your thoughts are sacrosanct from me and all other Imperial Advisors. What I can do is prevent you from being overwhelmed by your magic by siphoning it away. In fact if we enter a pact, I will always, on some level, be siphoning power from you. When they are summoned, Imperial Advisors are cut off from their home plane and fully instantiated in this one, one effect of which is that their Draw – the ability they possess to recharge their magic – is eliminated. By entering a pact with you I will be able to replenish the magic I expend with what I take from you.”

“Who controls how much you take?”

“I do,” Doxle said. “Part of the role is to take as much magic from you as is required to keep both you and those around us safe. That includes taking all of it should the need arise.”

“You can take away my magic completely?” The idea was more than horrifying. I wasn’t certain I could survive without my magic, and it wasn’t something I was eager to put to the test.

“Not completely, or forever,” Doxle said. “Through the pact bond, I can take the magic you have accumulated in your Hollowing. I cannot prevent you from drawing more in however.”

“But you could take that away too.”

“Yes, though likely not before you could attempt to use it for a spell.”

“Attempt?”

“Spells can be interrupted. Most spells. That tends to send the magic in them splattering everywhere, but a skilled Advisor can salvage a fair portion of it.”

“And I know you won’t do this because why?”

“Oh, you don’t,” Doxle said. “Not at all. Once the pact is formed, I could, completely at my own discretion, drain you of magic and apply the drain continuously. Some Advisors would lack the skill to do anything with that much magic, but I am not one of them.”

“That doesn’t inspire confidence.”

“Nor should it. This is not a pact you should enter into blindly. In fact if you had the choice, I would advise against entering into any arrangement even vaguely like this. Especially since draining magic is not all the pact allows for.”

“You could do more to me?”

“If we form a pact? Yes. As your Advisor, I am not allowed to inflict real injury on you, but I can force you to halt any action which I deem to be dangerous to yourself or other. Or which I simply find distasteful.”

“Force me to halt?”

“I can paralyze you, and yes, that is every bit as horrible as it sounds. I would be using our combined power to do so as well, so to break it you would need to break both of us.”

“That sounds worse than the Great Houses hunting me.” Far worse in fact. If I was hunted, I could flee to places and in ways they wouldn’t expect and might never be able to follow. Forming a pact with an Imperial Advisor sounded like a fate worse than death.

“It is,” Doxle said. “Or it’s not. For those who need an Advisor’s aid, the draining of their magic can be a life saving relief, and the ability to paralyze them can prevent them from taking actions they dearly wish not to take. With the control you have shown, I do not believe you are one of those people though. Which is why I would advise you not to form a pact with any Advisor.”

“Except you’re offering me one. Why?” I knew he wasn’t stupid, and he seemed to understand that I was following everything he was saying.

“I am – and it amuses to no end that this is true – the lesser of many evils in this circumstance.” He folded his hands on the table. “Word has gotten out about your performance at the gate. The Houses have their evaluators in the city at the moment for the Open Enrollment tomorrow at the Academy. When they don’t see you there, when they see no one there who can fight a squad of guards without permanently injuring any of them, they will set their hounds loose looking for you, and when they find you, they will bring you in and force a pact on you.”

“What if I go to the Open Enrollment Trials?” I asked. It was why I’d been sent to Middlerun, though not why I’d fought to get into the city.

“You’re not studied enough to pass the Common Trials, and if you take part in the Cadet Trials, either your power will be obvious to them or you’ll die hiding it.” He wasn’t saying that as a threat. If anything I thought he sounded sorrowful about it.

“So they would pact me to another Imperial Advisor. What makes you better than the rest?”

“Oh, I am much worse than many of them. I am a liar, a betrayer, and a failure. I serve so many masters I have lost count, and the one I love the most I am the least faithful to. My enemies are legion and my allies lost to time. In truth, making a pact with me will enmesh you in a web of problems that stretch back before the Cataclysm of Peaks.”

He offered me a tired smile and I responded by waiting silently for him to continue.

“I can offer you one thing though, something I don’t believe a forced pact would ever omit.” He sighed and looked at me so I could see his eyes clearly. “There is one other tool a pact can provide to an Imperial Advisor – we can punish behavior we wish to discourage.”

“Punish how? I thought you couldn’t hurt me?”

“Advisors cannot injure the ones they’re bonded to. Inflicting pain without physical injury though? There is no real limit to that. The manifestation differs from Advisor to Advisor. For most it’s a variation of simple searing agony, from something as mild as a minor stab wound up to the sensation that every cell in your body is burning in eternal flame, as the Advisor desires. Some choose stabbing cold, others needles, and so on.”

“What’s yours?”

“I don’t know. That is something I specifically exclude from the pacts I make. I can promise you very little, but I can forge into the magic that binds us together that I will never, can never hurt you with that binding. That you will know as a certainty.”

“But you’ll still be able to paralyze me?”

“That aspect of the pact cannot be omitted without the binding failing to count as a pact, and if we have no pact, then another one will be forced onto you.”

“Or I could run, and see if they can catch me.”

“Or you could run. I won’t tell you that escape is impossible. You are a creature of wonder and delight to me. I haven’t seen someone quite like you in centuries. Or perhaps ever. Who know what depths you hold? You might be able to do the impossible and escape from hunters who have decades of experience finding the cleverest of prey. You might even be able to retain your mind without any formal training. There are dangers before you, but not all dangers come to pass.”

He paused to allow me to interject even though he wasn’t done speaking.

I remained silent. 

“It is your choice. I cannot offer you unbiased advice in this. Only you can choose the life you wish to pursue.”